Insider Brief
- A $9 million, five-year U.S. Office of Naval Research MURI project led by Zheshen Zhang aims to use quantum entanglement to improve the accuracy, speed and sensitivity of distributed sensor networks beyond classical limits.
- The research will study whether entanglement, combined with error correction and stabilization, can surpass the standard quantum limit for measurement sensitivity and bandwidth, potentially enabling quadratic or greater performance gains in networked quantum sensors.
- The multidisciplinary effort will use experimental testbeds at the University of Michigan and Princeton University, with applications ranging from GPS-denied navigation and inertial sensing to secure quantum communications.
- Image: geralt on Pixabay, Story: University of Michigan
PRESS RELEASE — Networks of distributed sensors are commonplace in today’s society, from the security systems that monitor motion or the sound of glass breaking at a single home to the global network of seismological and geophysical sensors monitoring earthquake activity around the world. A new US Office of Naval Research (ONR) Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) project led by U-M Electrical and Computer Engineering Prof. Zheshen Zhang aims to harness quantum entanglement to improve the accuracy of these types of sensor networks.
Zhang and his research team were awarded $9M over five years to study and develop a holistic framework on distributed entangled quantum sensing. With entanglement, two particles are inherently linked through their quantum states; measuring one particle tells you something about the other, no matter the distance between them.
“You can create entanglement to connect the sensors,” explained Zhang. “Over the past few years, we discovered that entanglement can allow you to improve the performance of a sensor network in terms of the resolution—so you can actually review finer details and take measurements faster than a conventional sensor network, with more sensitivity or higher signal-to-noise ratio.”
“For this MURI program, we want to put these technologies in the broader context of designing the next generation of quantum technologies—using quantum computing and networking resources to boost the performance of such devices.”
The team plans to determine the physical limit for measurement sensitivity and bandwidth without using entanglement, called the “standard quantum limit,” of a network of quantum sensors. And more importantly, he said, they’d like to find out whether that fundamental standard quantum limit can be overcome using entanglement, with error correction and stabilization methods. If it can, as the research team hypothesizes, entangled quantum sensors can be drastically enhanced, by a quadratic scale or larger.
Once the groundwork for the sensing network is laid out, ECE Prof. Peter Seiler will apply control theory to optimize the sensing methodology for the number of sensors and their data analysis.
“The way that sensors work, feedback can be used to improve the sensing methodology,” Seiler said. “One example of this would be cruise control on a car: you’re measuring your speed, comparing it to how fast you want to go, and then changing the throttle on the engine to go faster or slower. Similar ideas can potentially be used here to improve the sensing capabilities of these entangled quantum sensors.”
The project will leverage multiple types of quantum platforms and types of sensors to measure both continuous and discrete variables, using experimental testbeds at the University of Michigan and Princeton University.
The fundamental findings of this work may translate into the design of inertial sensors for tracking objects in spaces where GPS is ineffective, the development of an improved “quantum internet” for fast and secure telecommunications, and more.
“This is a big, multidisciplinary, multi-university project,” Seiler said. “To be awarded the MURI, it required involving many different people with a lot of different expertise. I think Zheshen did a great job putting together the team and coordinating the proposal.”
The project, entitled “Discrete and Continuous-Variable Distributed Entangled Quantum Sensing: Foundation, Building Blocks, and Testbeds (DISCO-DEQS),” also includes co-PIs Alexey Gorshkov (University of Maryland), Saikat Guha (University of Maryland), Liang Jiang (University of Chicago), Jeff Thompson (Princeton University), Dalziel Wilson (University of Arizona), and Quntao Zhang (University of Southern California).
This line of research has been funded by the ONR for the past few years, allowing Zhang’s research group to collect the data necessary for this MURI proposal.
